Karaoke Revolution Party: Hands-On

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We sing, dance, and prove we stink at both. Still, we had fun.

By Charles Onyett

If you've got an irresistible need to completely embarrass yourself, Karaoke Revolution Party may be the perfect title for you. Combining the singing of Karaoke Revolution with some simplistic dance steps from Dance Dance Revolution, this game tests your vocal and physical prowess against the computer or against a friend. So far this is looking like the ultimate way to humiliate your friends.

In terms of features this game has so many you'll never find yourself growing bored. Most notable is, of course, the sing and dance mode where you can choose from around 50 songs to show off with as listed in our previous coverage. There will be a large number of venue choices including County Fair, Enormobowl, the Garage, Harmony Plaza, Pit Stop, Music Video, Rooftop, Superstar TV, Wagon Wheel, Beach Party, Central Station and a few others. In addition you'll also be able to access a character creation feature, special medley and duet modes, as well as some unique mini games. In terms of character creation you'll have a range of options available to you. You can make your avatar skinny, fat, muscular, apply different hair styles and colors, clothes, and an assortment of accessories.

By heading into the One Mic Party mode you'll have access to arcade, medley, sing and dance, minigames, and KR challenge modes. Arcade mode has you singing against your opponent to score the most points and win the most rounds. Medley fuses clips from different songs in rapid succession mainly focusing on the chorus of the song or the most popular part. You're able to squeeze from three to five songs together in this mode, and it's definitely a challenge. Sing and dance has you sing and dance, amazingly, and the KR challenge mixes all the modes together.

Though it doesn't involve that much skill and it's certainly not the deepest mode in the game, the mini game mode is definitely one of the most entertaining. In it you'll compete in two challenges. One plays like a beach volleyball version of pong and the other called Yo! Dude! Rock! is, well, not as easy to describe. The Beach Volleyball game challenges you to match the tone of a guitar with your voice. The closer you come to singing the tone, the closer your set of characters will move on the screen to where they need to be in order to block an incoming shot. If you sing poorly your characters will miss the ball and you'll get a point scored on you. However if you send enough shots back at your opponent they'll eventually miss and you'll score a point. In addition to simply matching tones, you'll also have to deal with pesky seagulls that fly by and deflect the ball. With two players, this mode is even better.

Yo! Dude! Rock! charges you with the task of getting characters to successfully perform stage dives. The game begins with three rows of characters running across a stage. As they reach a panel of lights near the stage's edge, you'll need to hit a tone that corresponds to what word they have in a bubble over their head. Yo is low, Rock is high pitched, and Dude is in the middle. As the game progresses the characters start to move faster. Eventually, you'll break down laughing from the realization that you're standing alone screaming "Yo! Dude! Rock! Rock! Yo!" in an endless, multi-tonal succession. With two people the game gets even crazier since the bubbles show up as different colors depending on which player is supposed to say them.

An additional minigame is the Fanfare game which can only be played with two people. In it you'll be challenged with picking up as many gifts as you can as they're thrown on stage by adoring fans. Though these mini games have little to do with the main singing and dancing gameplay of Karaoke Revolution Party, they're still a lot of fun. Two players will also be able to participate in the Two Mic Party mode. This adds Duets where two players sing as a team for a combined score and Duet Medley where two players sing song clips in rapid succession. Knock Out mode has players compete head to head and knock the opponent out, and Knock Out Medley switches up the songs. Other modes include Sing Off where players alternate phrases and try to get the highest score, and then there's the mini games, and the KR challenge.

The basic gameplay of Karaoke Revolution Party has players trying to sing the lyrics to popular songs as accurately as they can. By successfully hitting notes players will rack up points and amass combo bonuses. In addition, points are now accumulated by simultaneously hitting dance steps. On the easier settings, the dance steps are fairly simple, though still a challenge if you're trying to also concentrate on the lyrics. At harder difficulty setting, the dance steps are decidedly complicated, and may or may not have been related to why I kept falling over while playing this game. Check out the movies in the video gallery below to see what I'm talking about.

For extras, KRP has a DDR ULTRAMIX 3 Demo, training mode, high scores rankings, and a trophy room. Keep checking back with IGN for our final verdict when the game releases in early November.